Florentine exile, or where Dante's death mask is located. Dante Alighieri and his Divine Comedy as a standard of Italian Renaissance literature - biography Where was Dante Alighieri born

On May 21, 1265, one of the founders of literary literature was born. Italian language, the greatest poet, theologian, politician, who went down in the history of world literature as the author of The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri.

The Alighieri family belonged to the city nobility of middle income, and its ancestor was the famous knight Cacciaguida, who died in the second crusade in 1147. The full name of the legendary poet is Durante degli Alighieri, he was born in Florence, the largest Italian economic and cultural center of the Middle Ages, and all his life he remained devoted to his hometown. Little is known about the writer’s family and life; even the exact date of his birth is questioned by many researchers.

Dante Alighieri was an amazingly confident man. At the age of 18, the young man said that he could write poetry perfectly and that he mastered this “craft” on his own. Dante was educated within the medieval school programs, and since there was no university in Florence at that time, he had to obtain basic knowledge himself. The author of The Divine Comedy mastered the French and Provençal languages, read everything he could get his hands on, and his own path as a scientist, thinker and poet gradually began to emerge before him.

Poet-exile

The youth of the brilliant writer came during a difficult period: at the end of the 13th century, the struggle between the emperor and the pope intensified in Italy. Florence, where the Alighieris lived, was divided into two opposing factions - the “blacks” led by Corso Donati and the “whites,” to which Dante belonged. Thus began the political activity of the “last poet of the Middle Ages”: Alighieri participated in city councils and anti-papal coalitions, where the writer’s oratory gift was revealed in all its brilliance.

Dante did not seek political laurels, but political thorns very soon overtook him: the “blacks” intensified their activities and carried out a pogrom against their opponents. On March 10, 1302, Alighieri and 14 other “white” supporters were sentenced to death in absentia. To save himself, the philosopher and politician had to flee Florence. Dante was never able to return to his beloved city again. Traveling around the world, he looked for a place where he could retire and work quietly. Alighieri continued to study and, most importantly, create.

Monogamous poet

When Dante was nine years old, a meeting took place in his life that changed the history of all Italian literature. On the threshold of the church he ran into a little neighbor girl Beatrice Portinari and at first sight fell in love with the young lady. It was this tender feeling, as Alighieri himself admitted, that made him a poet. To last days During his life, Dante dedicated poems to his beloved, idolizing “the most beautiful of all angels.” Their next meeting took place nine years later, by this time Beatrice had already married, her husband was a rich signor Simon de Bardi. But no ties of marriage could prevent the poet from admiring his muse; all her life she remained “the mistress of his thoughts.” The autobiographical confession of the writer “New Life”, written at the fresh grave of his beloved in 1290, became a poetic document of this love.

Dante himself entered into one of those business marriages for political convenience that were accepted at that time. His wife was Gemma Donati, the daughter of a wealthy gentleman Manetto Donati. When Dante Alighieri was expelled from Florence, Gemma remained in the city with the children, preserving the remnants of her father’s property. Alighieri does not mention his wife in any of his works, but Dante and Beatrice became the same symbol of a love couple as Petrarch And Laura, Tristan And Isolde, Romeo And Juliet.

Dante and Beatrice on the banks of Lethe. Cristobal Rojas (Venezuela), 1889. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Italian "Comedy"

Beatrice's death marked the beginning of Dante's philosophical reflections on life and death, he began to read a lot Cicero, attend a religious school. All this served as the impetus for the creation of The Divine Comedy. A work of genius, created by the author in exile, and today is traditionally one of the ten most famous books. Dante's poem had a huge influence on the emergence of Italian literature itself. According to researchers, it is this work that summarizes the entire development of medieval philosophy. It also reflects the worldview greatest poet, therefore, “The Divine Comedy” is called the fruit of the entire life and work of the Italian master.

Alighieri’s comedy did not immediately become “divine”, as it was later dubbed by the author of “The Decameron” Giovanni Boccaccio, having come to admiration from what I read. Dante called his manuscript very simply - “Comedy”. He used medieval terminology, where comedy is “any poetic work of the middle style with a terrifying beginning and a happy ending, written in the vernacular”; tragedy is “any poetic work of high style with an admiring and calm beginning and a terrible end.” Despite the fact that the poem touches on the “eternal” themes of life and immortality of the soul, retribution and responsibility, Dante could not call his work a tragedy, because it, like all genres of “high literature,” had to be created on Latin. Alighieri wrote his “Comedy” in his native Italian, and even with the Tuscan dialect.

Dante worked on his greatest poem for almost 15 years, managing to complete it shortly before his death. Alighieri died of malaria on September 14, 1321, leaving behind a significant mark on world literature and marking the beginning of a new era - the early Renaissance.

DANTE Alighieri (Dante Alighieri) (1265-1321), Italian poet, creator of the Italian literary language. In his youth, he joined the Dolce Style Nuovo school (sonnets praising Beatrice, an autobiographical story " New life", 1292-93, edition 1576); philosophical and political treatises ("Feast", not completed; "On popular speech", 1304-07, edition 1529), "Epistle" (1304-16). The pinnacle of Dante's work is the poem "The Divine Comedy" (1307-21, edition 1472) in 3 parts ("Hell", "Purgatory", "Paradise") and 100 songs, a poetic encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. He had a great influence on the development of European culture.

DANTE Alighieri(May or June 1265, Florence - September 14, 1321, Ravenna), Italian poet, one of the greatest geniuses of world literature.

Biography

Dante's family belonged to the urban nobility of Florence. The poet's grandfather was the first to bear the family name Alighieri (in another vowel, Alagieri). Dante was educated at a municipal school, then, presumably, studied at the University of Bologna (according to even less reliable information, he also attended the University of Paris during the period of exile). Took an active part in political life Florence; from June 15 to August 15, 1300 he was a member of the government (he was elected to the position of prior), trying, while fulfilling the position, to prevent the aggravation of the struggle between the parties of the White and Black Guelphs (see Guelphs and Ghibellines). After an armed coup in Florence and the coming to power of the Black Guelphs, on January 27, 1302 he was sentenced to exile and deprived of civil rights; On March 10, he was sentenced to death for failing to pay a fine. The first years of Dante's exile are among the leaders of the White Guelphs, taking part in the armed and diplomatic struggle with the victorious party. The last episode in his political biography is associated with the Italian campaign of Emperor Henry VII (1310-13), to whose efforts to establish civil peace in Italy he gave ideological support in a number of public messages and in the treatise “Monarchy”. Dante never returned to Florence; he spent several years in Verona at the court of Can Grande della Scala, recent years life enjoyed the hospitality of the ruler of Ravenna, Guido da Polenta. Died of malaria.

Lyrics

The bulk of Dante's lyric poems were created in the 80-90s. 13th century; with the beginning of the new century, small poetic forms gradually disappeared from his work. Dante began by imitating the most influential lyric poet of Italy at that time, Guittone d'Arezzo, but soon changed his poetics and, together with his older friend Guido Cavalcanti, became the founder of a special poetic school, which Dante himself called the school of the "sweet new style" ("Dolce style nuovo" ) Its main distinguishing feature is the extreme spiritualization of love. Dante, providing biographical and poetic commentary, collected the poems dedicated to his beloved Beatrice Portinari in a book called “New Life” (c. 1293-95). : two meetings, the first in childhood, the second in youth, denoting the beginning of love, the death of Beatrice’s father, the death of Beatrice herself, the temptation of new love and overcoming it. The biography appears as a series of mental states leading to an increasingly complete mastery of the meaning of the feeling that has befallen the hero: in. As a result, the feeling of love acquires the features and signs of religious worship.

In addition to the “New Life”, about fifty more poems by Dante have reached us: poems in the manner of the “sweet new style” (but not always addressed to Beatrice); a love cycle known as “stone” (after the name of the recipient, Donna Pietra) and characterized by an excess of sensuality; comic poetry (a poetic altercation with Forese Donati and the poem "Flower", the attribution of which remains doubtful); a group of doctrinal poems (dedicated to the themes of nobility, generosity, justice, etc.).

Treatises

Poems of philosophical content became the subject of commentary in the unfinished treatise "The Symposium" (c. 1304-07), which represents one of the first Italian experiments in creating scientific prose in the popular language and at the same time the rationale for this attempt - a kind of educational program along with the defense of the folk language. In the unfinished Latin treatise “On Popular Eloquence,” written in the same years, an apology for the Italian language is accompanied by the theory and history of literature in it - both of which are absolute innovations. In the Latin treatise "Monarchy" (c. 1312-13), Dante (also for the first time) proclaims the principle of separation of spiritual and temporal power and insists on the full sovereignty of the latter.

"Divine Comedy"

Dante began working on the poem "The Divine Comedy" during the years of exile and completed it shortly before his death. Written in terzas, containing 14,233 verses, it is divided into three parts (or cantics) and one hundred cantos (each cantic has thirty-three cantos and another is the introductory one to the entire poem). It was called a comedy by the author, who proceeded from the classification of genres developed by medieval poetics. The definition of “divine” was assigned to her by her descendants. The poem tells about Dante's journey through the kingdom of the dead: the right to see the afterlife during his lifetime is a special favor that frees him from philosophical and moral errors and entrusts him with a certain high mission. Dante, lost in the “dark forest” (which symbolizes the specific, although not directly named, sin of the author himself, and at the same time the sins of all humanity, experiencing a critical moment in its history), comes to the aid of the Roman poet Virgil (who symbolizes the human mind, unfamiliar with divine revelation) and leads him through the first two afterlife kingdoms - the kingdom of retribution and the kingdom of redemption. Hell is a funnel-shaped hole ending in the center of the earth; it is divided into nine circles, in each of which execution is carried out on a special category of sinners (only the inhabitants of the first circle - the souls of unbaptized babies and righteous pagans - are spared from torment). Among the souls that Dante met and entered into conversation with him, there are those familiar to him personally and others known to everyone - characters ancient history and myths or modern heroes. In the Divine Comedy they are not turned into direct and flat illustrations of their sins; the evil for which they are condemned is difficult to combine with their human essence, sometimes not devoid of nobility and greatness of spirit (among the most famous episodes of this kind are meetings with Paolo and Francesca in the circle of voluptuaries, with Farinata degli Uberti in the circle of heretics, with Brunetto Latini in circle of rapists, with Ulysses in the circle of deceivers, with Ugolino in the circle of traitors). Purgatory is a huge mountain in the center of the uninhabited, ocean-occupied southern hemisphere, with ledges it is divided into seven circles, where the souls of the dead atone for the sins of pride, envy, anger, despondency, stinginess and extravagance, gluttony, and voluptuousness. After each of the circles, one of the seven signs of sin, inscribed by the gatekeeper angel, is erased from the forehead of Dante (and any of the souls of purgatory) - in this part of the Comedy, more acutely than in others, it is felt that Dante’s path is not only educational for him , but also redemptive. At the top of the mountain, in earthly paradise, Dante meets Beatrice (symbolizing divine revelation) and breaks up with Virgil; here Dante fully realizes his personal guilt and is completely cleared of it. Together with Beatrice, he ascends to paradise, in each of the eight heavens surrounding the earth (seven planetary and eighth stellar) he becomes acquainted with a certain category of blessed souls and strengthens in faith and knowledge. In the ninth, the Prime Mover's heaven, and in the Empyrean, where Beatrice is replaced by St. Bernard, he is awarded initiation into the secrets of the trinity and the incarnation. Both plans of the poem finally merge, in one of which the path of man to truth and goodness is presented through the abyss of sin, despair and doubt, in the other - the path of history, which has approached the final frontier and is opening towards a new era. And The Divine Comedy itself, being a kind of synthesis of medieval culture, turns out to be its final work.

(estimates: 4 , average: 3,75 out of 5)

Name: Dante Alighieri

Date of birth: 1265

Place of birth: Florence
Date of death: 1321
Place of death: Ravenna

Biography of Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri is a famous literary critic, theologian and poet. He gained worldwide fame thanks to his narrative work “The Divine Comedy”. In it, the author tried to show how perishable and short-lived life is, and tried to help readers stop being afraid of death and torment in hell.

Everything that is known about Dante Alighieri today is known from his works. He was born in Italy in the city of Florence, and until his death he was devoted to his homeland.

Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about his family. Alighieri barely mentioned her in his play The Divine Comedy. His mother's name was Bella and she died very early, and that is all that is known about her. The father tied the knot for the second time and had two more children. Around 1283 the father died. He left his family a simple but very comfortable estate in Florence and a small house outside the city. During the same period, Dante married Gemma Donati.

Very important role His friend and mentor Brunetto Latini played a role in the life and development of Alighieri as a person. This man had enormous knowledge; he constantly quoted famous philosophers and writers. It was he who instilled in Dante a love of beauty and light.

Dante was a slightly self-confident person. At the age of eighteen, he stated that he taught himself to write poetry and now does it perfectly.

Dante Alighieri often mentioned his talented comrade Guido Cavalcanti in his works. Their friendship was very complicated. Dante even had to leave Florence with him, since Guido found himself in exile. As a result, Cavalcanti contracts malaria and dies in 1300. Dante was saddened by this event, and paid tribute to his friend by including him in his works. Thus, in the poem “New Life” Cavalcanti is mentioned many times.

Also, in this poem, Dante described his brightest and first feelings for a woman - Beatrice. Today experts believe that this girl was Beatrice Portinari, who died very young, at 25 years old. The love of Dante and Beatrice is comparable to the feelings of Romeo and Jellyette, Tristan and Isolde.

The death of his beloved made Dante take a different look at life, and he began to study philosophy. He read Cicero a lot and thought about life and death. Also, the writer constantly visited a religious school in Florence.

In 1295, Dante became a member of the guild at a time when the struggle between the Pope and the Emperor began. The city was divided into two fronts: the “blacks” led by Corso Donati, and the “whites”, in which Alighieri was a member. It was the “whites” who won the battle and drove out the enemies. Over time, Dante became more and more against the Pope.

The “blacks” once entered the city and caused a real pogrom. Dante was repeatedly summoned to the city council, but he never appeared there. Therefore, he and several other “whites” were sentenced to death in absentia. He had to run away. As a result, he became disillusioned with politics and returned to writing.

It was during Ena, when Dante was away from his hometown, he began working on a work that brought him worldwide fame and success - the Divine Comedy.

Alighieri tried in his work to help those who are afraid of death. At that time, this was very relevant, because the souls of the people of that time were torn by the horrors of torment in hell.

Dante did not force people not to think about death, and did not claim that hell does not exist. He sincerely believed in both heaven and hell. He believed that only bright, kind feelings and courage would help him get out of hellish torment without harm.

In The Divine Comedy, Dante tells how he tried to write poetry in order to constantly reproduce in his memory the image of his beloved Beatrice through the lines. As a result, he began to understand that Beatrice did not die at all, did not disappear, because she was not subject to death, but on the contrary, she was capable of saving Dante herself. The girl shows the living Dante all the horrors of hell.

As Dante wrote, hell is not a specific place, but a state of the soul that at a certain moment can appear in a person and settle there for a long time precisely when a sin is committed.

In 1308, Henry became king of Germany. Dante again plunged headlong into politics. From 1316 to 1317 he lives in Ravenna. In 1321 he went to make peace with the Republic of St. Mark. On the way home, Dante contracted malaria and died in September 1321.

Bibliography of Dante Alighieri

Poems and treatises

• 1292 – New life
• 1304-1306 — About popular eloquence
• 1304-1307 - Feast
• 1310-1313 — Monarchy
• 1916 — Messages
• 1306-1321 —
• This is love
• The question of water and land
• Eclogues
• Flower

Poems of the Florentine period:

• Sonnets
• Canzone
• Ballads and stanzas

Poems written in exile:

• Sonnets
• Canzone
• Poems about the stone lady

Italian Dante Alighieri , full name Durante degli Alighieri

Italian poet, thinker, theologian, one of the founders of the literary Italian language, politician

Brief biography

- the greatest Italian poet, literary critic, thinker, theologian, politician, author of the famous “Divine Comedy”. Very little reliable information about the life of this man has been preserved; their main source is an artistic autobiography written by him, which describes only a certain period.

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence, in 1265, on May 26, into a well-born and wealthy family. It is not known where the future poet studied, but he himself considered the education he received insufficient, so he devoted a lot of time to independent education, in particular, studying foreign languages, creativity ancient poets, among whom he gave particular preference to Virgil, considering him his teacher and “leader.”

When Dante was only 9 years old, in 1274, an event occurred that became significant in his life, including his creative life. At the holiday, his attention was attracted by a peer, a neighbor's daughter, Beatrice Portinari. Ten years later, being a married lady, she became for Dante that beautiful Beatrice, whose image illuminated his entire life and poetry. A book called “New Life” (1292), in which he spoke in poetic and prose lines about his love for this young woman, who died untimely in 1290, is considered the first autobiography in world literature. The book made the author famous, although this was not his first literary experience; he began writing back in the 80s.

The death of his beloved woman forced him to immerse himself in science; he studied philosophy, astronomy, theology, and became one of the most educated people of his time, although his knowledge did not go beyond the medieval tradition based on theology.

In 1295-1296 Dante Alighieri made a name for himself as a public and political figure and participated in the work of the city council. In 1300 he was elected a member of the college of six priors that governed Florence. In 1298, he married Gemma Donati, who was his wife until her death, but this woman always played a modest role in his destiny.

Active political activity became the reason for the expulsion of Dante Alighieri from Florence. The split of the Guelph party, in which he was a member, led to the fact that the so-called whites, in whose ranks the poet was, were subjected to repression. Charges of bribery were brought against Dante, after which he was forced, leaving his wife and children, to leave his hometown in order to never return to it. This happened in 1302.

From that time on, Dante constantly wandered around cities and traveled to other countries. So, it is known that in 1308-1309. he visited Paris, where he participated in open debates organized by the university. Alighieri's name was twice included in the lists of persons subject to amnesty, but both times it was crossed out. In 1316, he was allowed to return to his native Florence, but on the condition that he publicly admit that his views were wrong and repent, but the proud poet did not do this.

From 1316 he settled in Ravenna, where he was invited by Guido da Polenta, the ruler of the city. Here, in the company of his sons, his beloved daughter Beatrice, admirers, and friends, the poet’s last years passed. It was during the period of exile that Dante wrote a work that made him famous for centuries - “Comedy”, to the title of which several centuries later, in 1555, the word “Divine” was added in the Venetian edition. The beginning of work on the poem dates back to approximately 1307, and Dante wrote the last of the three (Hell, Purgatory and Paradise) parts shortly before his death.

He dreamed of becoming famous with the help of “Comedy” and returning home with honors, but his hopes were not destined to come true. Having contracted malaria while returning from a trip to Venice on a diplomatic mission, the poet died on September 14, 1321. “The Divine Comedy” was the pinnacle of his literary activity, but his rich and diverse creative heritage is not exhausted by it and includes, in particular, philosophical treatises, journalism, and lyrics.

Biography from Wikipedia

In Florence

According to family tradition, Dante's ancestors came from the Roman family of Elisei, who participated in the founding of Florence. Cacciaguida, Dante's great-great-grandfather, participated in the crusade of Conrad III (1147-1149), was knighted by him and died in battle with the Muslims. Cacciaguida was married to a lady from the Lombard family of Aldighieri da Fontana. The name "Aldighieri" was transformed into "Alighieri"; This is how one of the sons of Kachchagvida was named. The son of this Alighieri, Bellincione, Dante's grandfather, expelled from Florence during the struggle between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, returned to his hometown in 1266, after the defeat of Manfred of Sicily at Benevento. Alighieri II, Dante's father, apparently did not take part in the political struggle and remained in Florence.

Exact date Dante's birth is unknown. According to Boccaccio, Dante was born in May 1265. Dante himself reported about himself (Comedy, Paradise, 22) that he was born under the sign of Gemini, which begins on May 21. IN modern sources Most often the dates given are the second half of May 1265. It is also known that Dante was baptized on March 25, 1266 (on the first Holy Saturday) under the name Durante.

Dante's first mentor was the then famous poet and scientist Brunetto Latini. The place where Dante studied is unknown, but he gained extensive knowledge of ancient and medieval literature, natural sciences and was familiar with the heretical teachings of the time.

With enough to a large extent It is assumed that in 1286-1287 Dante lived for several months in Bologna near the towers of Garisenda and Asinelli that have survived to this day. In the absence of any documentary evidence, researchers admit that the most likely reason for his stay in this city could have been studying at the famous university.

Dante's closest friend was the poet Guido Cavalcanti. Dante dedicated many poems and fragments of the poem “New Life” to him.

The first official mention of Dante Alighieri as a public figure dates back to 1296 and 1297; already in 1300 or 1301 he was elected prior. In 1302, Dante was expelled from Florence along with his party of the White Guelphs. He never saw his hometown again and died in exile.

Years of exile

Monument to Dante 1865 Florence. Work of sculptor E. Pazzi

The years of exile were years of wandering for Dante. Already at that time he was a lyric poet among the Tuscan poets of the “new style” - Cino from Pistoia, Guido Cavalcanti and others. His “La Vita Nuova (New Life)” had already been written; his exile made him more serious and strict. He starts his “Feast” (“Convivio”), an allegorical scholastic commentary on the fourteen canzones. But “Convivio” was never finished: only the introduction and interpretation to the three canzones were written. The Latin treatise on the popular language, or eloquence (“De vulgari eloquentia”), is also unfinished, ending at the 14th chapter of the second book.

During the years of exile, three cants of the Divine Comedy were created gradually and under the same working conditions. The time at which each of them was written can only be approximately determined. Paradise was completed in Ravenna, and there is nothing incredible in Boccaccio's story that after the death of Dante Alighieri his sons for a long time they could not find the last thirteen songs until, according to legend, Dante dreamed of his son Jacopo and told him where they lay.

There is very little factual information about the fate of Dante Alighieri; his trace has been lost over the years. At first, he found shelter with the ruler of Verona, Bartolomeo della Scala; the defeat in 1304 of his party, which tried to forcefully achieve installation in Florence, doomed him to a long wandering around Italy. Later he arrived in Bologna, in Lunigiana and Casentino, in 1308-1309. ended up in Paris, where he spoke with honor at public debates, common in universities of that time. It was in Paris that Dante received the news that Emperor Henry VII was going to Italy. The ideal dreams of his “Monarchy” were resurrected in him with new strength; he returned to Italy (probably in 1310 or early 1311), seeking renewal for her and the return of civil rights for himself. His “message to the peoples and rulers of Italy” is full of these hopes and enthusiastic confidence, however, the idealistic emperor died suddenly (1313), and on November 6, 1315, Ranieri di Zaccaria of Orvietto, King Robert’s viceroy in Florence, confirmed the decree of exile regarding Dante Alighieri, his sons and many others, condemning them to execution if they fell into the hands of the Florentines.

From 1316-1317 he settled in Ravenna, where he was summoned to retire by the lord of the city, Guido da Polenta. Here, in the circle of children, among friends and fans, the songs of Paradise were created.

Death

In the summer of 1321, Dante, as an ambassador of the ruler of Ravenna, went to Venice to conclude peace with the Republic of St. Mark. On the way back, Dante fell ill with malaria and died in Ravenna on the night of September 13-14, 1321.

Dante was buried in Ravenna; the magnificent mausoleum that Guido da Polenta prepared for him was not erected. The modern tomb (also called the “mausoleum”) was built in 1780. The familiar portrait of Dante Alighieri is devoid of authenticity: Boccaccio depicts him with a beard instead of the legendary clean-shaven one, however, in general, his image corresponds to our traditional idea: an elongated face with an aquiline nose, large eyes , wide cheekbones and a prominent lower lip; always sad and thoughtfully focused.

Brief chronology of life and creativity

• 1265 - birth.
• 1274 - first meeting with Beatrice.
• 1283 - second meeting with Beatrice.
• 1290 - death of Beatrice.
• 1292 - creation of the story “New Life” (“La Vita Nuova”).
• 1296/97 - the first mention of Dante as a public figure.
• 1298 - marriage to Gemma Donati.
• 1300/01 - Prior of Florence.
• 1302 - expelled from Florence.
• 1304-1307 - Treatise “Feast”.
• 1304-1306 - treatise “On Popular Eloquence.”
• 1306-1321 - creation of the Divine Comedy.
• 1308/09 - Paris.
• 1310/11 - return to Italy.
• 1315 - confirmation of the expulsion of Dante and his sons from Florence.
• 1316-1317 - settled in Ravenna.
• 1321 - how the ambassador of Ravenna goes to Venice.
• On the night of September 13 to September 14, 1321, he dies on the way to Ravenna.

Personal life

In the poem “New Life,” Dante sang about his first youthful love, Beatrice Portinari, who died in 1290 at the age of 24. Dante and Beatrice became a symbol of love, like Petrarch and Laura, Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet.

In 1274, nine-year-old Dante fell in love with a girl of eight years old, the daughter of a neighbor, Beatrice Portinari, at a May festival - this is his first biographical memory. He had seen her before, but the impression from this meeting was renewed in him when nine years later (in 1283) he saw her again as a married woman and this time became interested in her. Beatrice becomes the “mistress of his thoughts” for the rest of his life, a wonderful symbol of that morally uplifting feeling that he continued to cherish in her image, when Beatrice had already died (in 1290), and he himself entered into one of those business marriages, according to political calculation , which were accepted at that time.

The Dante family sided with the Florentine Cerchi party, which was at enmity with the Donati party. But Dante married Gemma Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati. The exact date of his marriage is unknown. It is known that in 1301 he already had three children (Pietro, Jacopo and Antonia). When Dante was expelled from Florence, Gemma remained in the city with the children, preserving the remnants of her father's property.

Later, when Dante composed his “Comedy” in glorification of Beatrice, Gemma was not mentioned in it even a single word. In recent years he lived in Ravenna; his sons, Jacopo and Pietro, poets, his future commentators, and his daughter Antonia gathered around him; only Gemma lived away from the whole family. Boccaccio, one of Dante's first biographers, summarized it all: that Dante married under duress and persuasion, and therefore during the long years of exile he never thought of calling his wife to him. Beatrice determined the tone of his feelings, the experience of exile - his social and political views and their archaism.

Creation

Dante Alighieri, a thinker and poet, constantly looking for a fundamental basis for everything that happened in himself and around him, it was this thoughtfulness, thirst for general principles, certainty, internal integrity, passion of the soul and boundless imagination that determined the qualities of his poetry, style, imagery and abstractness .

Love for Beatrice acquired a mysterious meaning for him; he filled every work with it. Her idealized image occupies a significant place in Dante's poetry. Dante's first works date back to the 1280s. In 1292, he wrote a story about the love that renewed him, “The New Life” (“La Vita Nuova”), composed of sonnets, canzones and a prose story-commentary about his love for Beatrice. “A New Life” is considered the first autobiography in the history of world literature. Already in exile, Dante writes the treatise “The Feast” (Il convivio, 1304-1307).

Alighieri also created political treatises. Later, Dante found himself in a whirlpool of parties, and was even an inveterate municipalist; but he had a need to understand the basic principles political activity, so he writes his Latin treatise “On the Monarchy” (“De Monarchia”). This work is a kind of apotheosis of the humanist emperor, next to which he would like to place an equally ideal papacy. In his treatise “On Monarchy,” Dante the politician spoke. Dante the poet was reflected in the works “New Life”, “The Feast” and “The Divine Comedy”.

"New Life"

In this first psychological novel in Europe, the feeling of love acquires an unprecedented height and spirituality. This is the first embodiment of that simple and at the same time unusually complex, fraught with many consequences, feeling that determined the development of the most cherished aspects of Dante’s soul. Dante's love is touching in its naivety and freshness, but at the same time one can feel in it the spirit of a stern and attentive spirit, the hand of an artist who thinks about many things at once, experiencing the most complex dramas of the heart. Imaginative descriptions of the virtues and virtues of Beatrice, a soulful analysis of Dante's ecstatic adoration of his beloved add brightness and spirituality to his schematic literary techniques.

"Feast"

In the Symposium (between 1304 and 1307) - and this is very characteristic of the historical originality of the Pre-Renaissance period, aesthetically realized in Dante's work - politics is organically combined not only with ethics, but also with poetics and linguistics.

Dante's Renaissance theories of style are preceded by the idea of ​​the importance of spiritual support for “exemplary”, “correct poets”. Dante humanistically believed in the boundlessness of the creative powers of the individual. creative personality, drawing inspiration from folk culture and close to the people’s needs and worldview, embodying its true, “reasonable” aspirations in poetry, its style and language. A grammatically organized vernacular language new literature and culture, which in the treatise “On Popular Eloquence” is proclaimed “primordial” and called “brilliant Italian folk speech”, was to be formed from living colloquial speech regions of Italy under the influence of the cultural and literary activities of writers. The first treatise of the Symposium ends with the thought that this language will become “a new light, a new sun, which will rise where the familiar has set; and it gives light to those who are in darkness and darkness, since the old sun no longer shines for them” (I, XIII, 12).

In The Feast there is a strong connection between new ideas and the search for a new style and language. When Dante creates a new Italian literary language and “beautiful style,” he also takes care of their compliance with the requirements of the “noble lady,” which he calls (at the beginning of the third canzone) “Madonna philosophy.” In the canzone and in the accompanying discussions, Dante deepens and democratizes anti-class ideas about nobility as a kind of grace descending on a “well-disposed” soul; his concept of the “divinity” of man certainly acquires a humanistic essence. Dante’s nobility presupposes promoting the establishment of general prosperity and social harmony on earth in a worldwide and autocratic empire, for “to eliminate internecine wars and for their reasons it is necessary that the whole earth and that everything that is given to the human race to possess should be a Monarchy, that is, a single state, and had one sovereign, who, owning everything and not being able to desire more, would keep individual sovereigns within the boundaries of their possessions, so that peace would reign between them, which cities would enjoy, where neighbors would love each other, in this love everyone he received a house according to his needs and so that, having satisfied them, each person lived happily, for he was born for happiness” (“Feast”, IV, IV, 4).

The idea that happiness lies in man’s earthly existence, and “that the purpose of every virtue is to make our life more joyful” (ibid., I, VIII, 12) is undoubtedly revolutionary; one may recall that in the “Feast” the idea of ​​social world harmony - “every person is a friend to every other person by nature” (I, I, 8) - is justified by the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe harmony of an individual, an ordinary earthly person. True, spiritual nobility in Dante presupposes bodily beauty, nobility of the flesh (IV, XXV, 12-13). These kinds of ideas anticipate a life-affirming worldview Italian Renaissance and also serve as prerequisites for the formation of the Renaissance style.

"The Divine Comedy"

Analysis

In form, the “Divine Comedy” is a vision of the afterlife, a common genre in medieval literature. Like the poets of that era, the poem seems to be an allegorical building. So, the dense forest in which the poet got lost in the middle life path, is a symbol of sins committed throughout life and delusions experienced. The three animals that attack him there: a lynx, a lion and a she-wolf are the three most powerful passions: voluptuousness, pride, and greed, respectively. These allegories are also given a political meaning: the lynx is Florence, the spots on the skin of which should indicate the enmity of the Guelph and Ghibelline parties; lion, symbol of rough physical strength- France; the she-wolf, greedy and lustful, is the papal curia. These beasts threaten the national unity of Italy, which Dante dreamed of, a unity cemented by the dominance of the feudal monarchy (some literary historians give Dante's entire poem a political interpretation). The narrator is saved from the beasts by Virgil, the mind sent to the poet Beatrice (who appears here as a symbol of divine providence). Virgil leads Dante through hell to purgatory and on the threshold of heaven gives way to Beatrice. The essence of this allegory is this: reason saves a person from passions, and divine grace (Beatrice in translation from Italian - gracious) leads to eternal bliss.

“Comedy” is imbued with the author’s political predilections. Dante never misses an opportunity to reckon with his ideological opponents and personal enemies; he hates usurers, condemns credit as “usury”, his age as the age of profit and love of money. In his opinion, money is the source of many evils. His dark present is contrasted with the bright past, bourgeois Florence - feudal Florence, when everyone valued moderation, simplicity of morals, knightly “courtesy” (“Paradise”, Cacciaguida’s story). The terzas of the “Purgatory” accompanying the appearance of Sordello (Purgatory, Canto VI) are a hymn of praise to Ghibellinism. Next, Dante praises Constantine and Justinian as the greatest emperors, placing them in paradise (Paradise, Canto VI); these most significant figures of the Roman Empire were supposed to serve as an example for the German emperors of that time, and in particular for Henry VII of Luxembourg, whom Dante called on to invade Italy and unite it on feudal principles. The poet treats the papacy as an institution with the highest respect, although he feels hatred towards its individual representatives, and especially those who contributed to the establishment of capitalism in Italy; some dads end up in hell. Dante's faith is Catholicism, although a personal element hostile to the old orthodoxy intrudes into it, although mysticism and the Franciscan pantheistic religion of love, accepted with all passion, also sharply deviate from Catholicism proper. His philosophy is theology, his science is scholasticism, his poetry is allegory. The ideals of asceticism in Dante are not yet dead, and therefore he considers free love to be a sin (Hell, Canto V, episode with Francesca da Rimini and Paolo). But for him, love that attracts to the object of worship with a pure platonic impulse is not a sin. This is a great world force that “moves the sun and other luminaries.” And humility is no longer an unconditional virtue. “Whoever does not renew his strength in glory with victory will not taste the fruit he obtained in the struggle.” The spirit of inquisitiveness, the desire to expand one’s horizons, to discover new things, combined with “virtue”, encouraging heroic daring, is extolled as an ideal.

Dante created his vision from pieces real life. Design the afterlife made up of individual corners of Italy, placed in it with clear graphic contours. The poem depicts so many living human images, so many typical figures, so many vivid psychological situations, so many expressive and impressive scenes and episodes that art continues to draw from there in subsequent centuries, and even in our time. Looking at the huge gallery of historical figures and persons depicted by Dante in the Comedy, you conclude that there is not a single image that would not be cut by the poet’s unmistakable plastic intuition. During Dante's era, Florence experienced an era of intense economic and cultural prosperity. That unusually acute sense of man and landscape in the Comedy, which the world learned from Dante, was possible only in the social situation of Florence in the 14th century, which then stood at the vanguard of European progress. Individual episodes, such as Francesca and Paolo, Farinata in his red-hot grave, Ugolino with his children, Capaneus and Ulysses, very unlike ancient images, the Black Cherub with subtle devilish logic, Sordello on his stone, still make a strong impression..

Impact on culture

As indicated in the Newest Dictionary of Philosophy, Dante’s poetry “played big role in the design of Renaissance humanism and in the development of European cultural tradition in general, having a significant impact not only on the poetic-artistic, but also on the philosophical spheres of culture (from the lyrics of Petrarch and the Pleiades poets to the sophiology of V.S. Solovyov).”

The first love in the biography of Dante Alighieri was Beatrice Portinari. But she died in 1290. After this, Alighieri married Gemma Donati. One of Dante Alighieri's first stories was “A New Life.” In 1300-1301 Alighieri held the title of Prior of Florence, and in next year was expelled. At the same time, his wife remained living in her old place; he did not invite Gemma to accompany him. For the whole later life Alighieri never came to Florence again.

The next work in Alighieri’s biography was “The Feast,” written in exile. It was followed by the treatise “On Popular Eloquence.” Forced to leave Florence, Alighieri traveled around Italy and France. At the same time he was an active public figure - he gave lectures and took part in debates. The most famous work in the biography of Dante Alighieri became “The Divine Comedy”, which the writer created from 1306 until the end of his life. The work consists of three parts - Hell, Purgatory, Paradise. Among Alighieri's other works: "Eclogues", "Epistle", the poem "Flower", the treatise "Monarchy".

In 1316 he began to live in Ravenna. Dante Alighieri died in September 1321, contracting malaria.

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